PAOC oversees a broad program of education and
research in atmospheric, oceanic, and climate sciences. We are engaged in some of
the most intellectually challenging and important problems in science, such as the
chemistry of the ozone hole, the physics of hurricanes and the dynamics of ice ages.

The phenomena under study are exceedingly complex and involve a
large array of scientific disciplines - geophysics, geochemistry, physical and chemical
oceanography, meteorology, atmospheric chemistry, and planetary science. The program
carries out research and gives instruction in all of these principal areas.

Perhaps more
than any other program in the world, PAOC offers its students unique opportunities for
interdisciplinary study and research. In all areas we emphasize a
combination of theoretical, observational and modeling
approaches.

The Green Building

PAOC is housed primarily in the top six floors of the Green
Building designed by I.M. Pei. A landmark in the history of
modern architecture, it is an icon on the MIT campus.

Play Tetris on the Green building by clicking on the image.

Students and researchers come from all
over the world attracted not only by our programs but also the city of Cambridge and its environs which contain many
institutions active in atmospheric and oceanographic research; Harvard University, Woods
Hole Oceanographic Institution, and the Boston Office of the National Weather Service,
as well as many private companies. Contact with all of these institutions is maintained
through seminars and symposia. Moreover students can formally take subjects at the Woods
Hole Oceanographic Institution and Harvard University.

The
research and educational programs of PAOC also benefit from the larger intellectual milieu
provided by MIT with its strengths in science and engineering. In research there are no
departmental boundaries and we collaborate freely across discipline.